Monthly Archives: January 2017

Many Sunsets ago there were two sisters that would play along the Detroit river. For many years they would enjoy traveling with friends and family as they would visit a magic land on a wonderful little island. The sisters would make their trips, day after day, and as the years went by, they grew older and older, but still enjoyed there time together while greeting old friends who now have their own children. As the years went by there were less and less people that wanted to go on a journey with the two sisters, and then one day they finally made there last trip to the beautiful little island in the Detroit River. After 81 years of playing on the river together, the two sisters parted, and went there separate ways. one is still near the Detroit River resting and waiting for the day she can visit the little island with all her friends and family.

The Ste. Claire was launched at the Toledo Shipbuilding Company in 1910, and entered service later that year as part of the fleet operated by the Detroit & Windsor Ferry Company. For 81 years, this vessel carried passengers to Boblo Island until the park closed in 1993. The Ste Claire and her sister ship the Columbia are the last two passenger steamers left in the country. The Ste Claire was declared a US National Historic Landmark in 1992 and is currently on the rouge river awaiting restoration, you can find out more at Bobloboat.com

Update:The Ste Claire was recently purchased and moved to Riverside Marina, Here is an article about the sale of the ship at Clickondetroit HERE

Poverty Island is located in northern lake Michigan and one of several islands marking the entrance to Big Bay De Noc and Green Bay, as in the bay in lake Michigan, not the city. As shipping traffic increased on the Great Lakes it was decided that a light was needed to guide ships safely thru the chain of islands at the entrance to Green Bay. The U.S. Lighthouse Board commissioned a Lighthouse to be built on Poverty island in 1874 using the same design as the Lighthouse on Sturgeon Point near Harrisville on Lake Huron, ( you can read my post HERE) The Light was automated in 1958 and by 1965 the Lantern room at the top of the tower and the lens had been removed and replaced with an exposed electric light. The Light was permanently deactivated and abandoned in 1995 and the old discarded lantern room laying on the ground was retrieved and used to restore the Sand Point Lighthouse ( you can see my post HERE)

The Old abandoned Lighthouse, that’s on my ” Bucket List” of places to photograph, looks over the waters where treasure chests full of gold were tossed overboard into Lake Michigan. There are several theories of where the chests came from, one of them being, Jesse Strang the ” King of Beaver Island” and the leader of a Mormon colony on Beaver Island with the gold was collected from his followers. The plausible theory is that during the Civil War, a shipment of gold from Napoleon Bonaparte was being transported thru the great lakes down the Mississippi to fund the Confederate army. When a Union ship began attacking, the captain had the crew throw the treasure chests overboard in the waters off poverty island, so the gold could not be used by the Union Army, with the intention of retrieving it later.

There have been several expeditions and divers searching for the gold, and in 2001, the Great Lakes Exploration Group, lead by Steve Libert, came across a sunken ship, which is believed to be the wreck of the first sailing vessel on the great lakes, the Le Griffon built by french explorer 1679 to look for the northwest passage. (You can check out their website HERE)

I don’t know if the treasure will be found, or if there ever was a treasure, but the finding of the Le Griffon may be worth more than gold, but gold would be nice too.

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This Second Empire style mansion was built in the 1870s by Doctor Joseph Loop. A native of New York, Loop moved to Oakland County, Michigan, in 1843. he and his wife, Jane Gardner Loop pioneered this land in Sanilac County in 1854, and after graduating from the University of Michigan medical department in 1855, he opened a practice in Port Sanilac. When this home was built, he kept an office on the lower floor, and serviced a forty-mile circuit, bringing medical care to much of the county. Doctor Loop died in 1903 at the age of ninety-three, leaving the home to his only child, Ada. She and her husband, the Reverend Julius Harrison passed it in turn to one of their sons, Captain Stanley Harrison. In 1964 he deeded it to the Sanilac County Historical Society for a museum.

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In the late 1800’s, many of the lighthouses that guided ships around the great lakes were isolated from civilization, and the keeper along with their assistant, or their family, lived a lonely life with little contact to the outside world. The lighthouse tender Dahliawould make visits to the lighthouse carrying supplies and the officer responsible for inspections of the lighthouse. The visits of the Dahlia also meant the keeper would get a “treasure” chest not filled with gold or riches, although possibly their meager pay, but they would get a chest filled with books for the keeper to read. When the Dahlia would return the keeper would exchange the chest for a different one, and a list of books written on the lid would verify all the books were with the chest, if not, there would be hell to pay, or maybe they would just take it our of their salary. I would assume they would just swap chests from lighthouse to lighthouse, but I would think a lonely lighthouse keep must have looked forward to getting a new set of books to read. it’s not like they had satellite internet back then or even AOL to dial up let alone a telephone to use.

P.S. since I am on the subject of books, I thought I would update you on my latest project. I posted on facebook asking if there would be interest in me publishing a book and the response was overwhelmingly positive. So now I am in the process of taking some of my most popular posts and assembling them into a book. It’s gonna take me some time to go thru and edit and fix my grammar, and you know what I am talking about if you have read many of my posts. I hope to have a book out in late spring or early summer, if I get a little sparse in posting, it’s because I am deep into working on my book. Right now I am in the process of finding a printer, and yes I plan to have them printed in Michigan.

P.P.S. if you’re wondering, the lighthouse in the photo is of the Crisp Point Lighthouse, you can read about my trip to the lighthouse HERE

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There are several lighthouses in Michigan, about a 150 of them if you really wanna know, and the Livingston memorial light is one of the most unique, not only in Michigan but in the United states. It’s one of only 3 lights erected as a memorial in Michigan and the only navigational light constructed of marble in the country.

William Livingston was a prominent businessman in Detroit and served as president of the Lake Carriers Association. He was instrumental in having the government expanding the Soo locks and deepening and widening the channel in the St Mary’s river. He also worked on the project building a waterway for downbound ships in the lower Detroit River, which opened in 1908, and named the Livingstone Channel in his honor. During the early 1900’s, more ships and more tonnage passed by Detroit than through either the Suez or Panama canals.

After his death in 1925, as a tribute to Livingston, the city of Detroit donated the property on Belle Isle and funds were raised by the Lakes Carriers Association to build the $100,000 tower designed by famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn. The flouted art deco tower is made of white georgian marble, and has a light that can be seen for 16 miles on Lake St Clair.

Belle Isle Lighthouse built in 1881. Photo from the Coast Guard archives

The was another lighthouse on the island before the memorial light was built. The Belle Isle lighthouse was constructed in 1881 in the location where the coast guard station is now. Keeper Louis Fetes lived at the lighthouse for nearly 40 years and he and his wife raised their six children on the island, in 1930 the light was automated and by the 40’s the old forgotten lighthouse began to decay and the coast guard demolished it. I found a photo of the old lighthouse on the coast guards website and it was a beautiful victorian looking lighthouse, it’s sad the house is no longer standing, I think it would be one of the most beautiful lighthouses in Michigan.

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The long forgotten town of Rattle Run, and the church that the townsfolk once worshiped inside, has been gone for a long time, but one of Michigan’s most gruesome murders took place there. The town, named after the nearby rattling rapids of Columbus Creek, was located in Columbia township southwest of Port Huron. In January of 1909 the church caretaker made a shocking discovery of blood in the snow. When he looked inside the the church, it was in complete disarray, and there was blood splattered everywhere.

The caretaker contacted sheriff Waggensell in Port Huron, and upon investigating the scene, human body parts were found in the wood stove used to heat the church. The minister at the church, Rev. JohnHaviland Carmichael was nowhere to be found.

The Rattle Run church is gone but I like this old abandoned church so I am posting this pic with the story.

A few days after the murder, a man by the name of John Elder shows up in the town of Carthage Illinois without any baggage and rented a room at a boarding house run by Mrs. Hughes. He tells her he is a cabinet maker passing thru town. Mr. Elder was acting very strangely, and when Mrs. Hughes gives him dinner, he said he is fasting and would not eat anything. The next morning she made him a large breakfast figuring he would be hungry but he simply gathered what little he had, paid his bill, and said he was leaving for a job twelve miles away.

A few moments later, she heard a noise in the shed and was scared to look for herself, so she called a neighbor but they were not home, then a mailman walked by and when he looked in the shed he found Mr. Elder lying on the floor with blood gushing out of his neck, and a knife in his hands. He was still alive, but died shortly after. The local sheriff in Carthage found two letters, one addressed to Mrs. Carmichael in Rattle Run and the other to Sheriff Waggensell in Port Huron.

Both letters were almost Identical, and this is what was written on them:

To Mr. Waggensell

Port Huron, Mich.

dated Jan. 9, 1909

Carthage Illinois,

Honored Sir: I write this letter to explain in connection with a Columbus creek tragedy. I am guilty only because I am a coward. The man ( Amos Gideon Browning )had such a hypnotic Influence over me that I felt that something must be done. I felt greatly ashamed that a man said to be short minded should be able to compel me to yield to his will

At first he said:” It’s all right, elder, don’t be afraid”. Then he began to talk about how we two could get rich. Three times he came to the rear of my barn and talked to me. Twice he was at the river when I went to water my stock, and each time I felt that he was doing something he was proud of.

Once when I was going out to Columbus he was on the pike, near the pink school-house, when I overtook him, he asked to ride, which I could not refuse. he asked me if ever I had driven the pike to Port Huron, to which I answered no. Then he said: ‘Come on, lets drive up to Port Huron,’ which I resented, but he kept on until he persuaded me to go.

He got out and stood at the corner while I went to the barn with the rig. Then later we had been at the restaurant, for which he paid, also for the horse feed, He gave me a half dollar and said he wanted me to go there and buy a small hatchet for his boy to play with. I began to tell him to go and do his own buying, he set his eyes upon me with the queerest sort of a look, something like a look of a snake’s eye.

All the while I felt his influence tighten on my mind, so I went. Intending to go into the store and out the back way to get the horse and rush off for home. When I turned to close the door he stood looking upon me through the window and I just bought the hatchet and came out again, but by that time he had disappeared, I went into the barn, got my rig, and started for home, when as I made the turn into Military street he was at the corner to get in.

He rode as far as South Park, where he got out to take the car, and he took the hatchet with him and said nothing, nor did I think anything at the time about it.

When at the depot at Adair, he came out of the house and compelled me to walk the rails. All the while I felt as small as a bantam chicken. When he arranged with me about the wedding he wanted, he would go to Port Huron and get the license and meet me on the road between that place and the church.

I thought that he really meant to get married when he engaged my services, but when we met In the road and he was alone I began to feel uneasy, but he said it was all right, the others would come in a carriage. When we went Into tho church I wanted to light a lamp, to which he dissented, saying; “No, elder, no light unless they should come”. But, presently, he said “maybe we better have a little fire”. So I went out and passed wood to him through the window.

When I had put in what I thought would be enough, he said: “now, elder, the moonlight is Shining right on the front-door, and if you go around there to come in some one may see you. Just pile up some wood here and come in through this window.’ I brought a few sticks and laid them across each other, from the top of which he helped me into the building. he let the window nearly down again and we kept looking out through the opening to see if the others came down the state road.

He took a big hearty laugh and said: ‘There ain’t no use looking, for there ain’t going to be no wedding.’ He was sitting where a gleam of light shone on his face and his eyes were so brilliant that I was thrilled through and through. Queerest sort of feeling. I asked him why, then, he had made the present arrangement, when he said:

“Well, elder, I Just wanted to have a little fun. You consider yourself an educated man and look down on a poor Ignorant fellow like me, and I just thought I would show you. I knowed if I could handle you I could handle other men and make a big thing out of it. Now if I say, raise your hand, up she goes. See, that is no dream,’ and I felt my hand raising without any effort whatever on my part.

“Then he said: If I say let down your hand. down it goes.’ and I felt it going down In. a singular manner. By this time I was so alarmed that I was in a cold sweat. I then leaned over to see if any one might be on the road, when he began to laugh again, and I saw that he was holding a weapon up his sleeve. Instantly I made a grab for it and got the hatchet from him and asked what he meant to do with that, and he said: “ I will show you.”and from his overcoat pocket he drew out a knife with each hand.

He came at me. striking with both hands. I backed across the church, down the side aisle and across the front, but I did not dare to turn about to the front door. Then I threw the hatchet and struck him and he fell. I then turned to open the door, when he grabbed me by the leg and threw me down where my hand came upon the hatchet.

There was a desperate struggle. in which I used the hatchet until he lay quiet and still. I cannot recal all that happened after that. I was wild to dispose of the body. I was in a horrible terror, I began pulling off his garments that I might drag the body away somewhere and hide it. when he woke up and grabbed me again. Then for a while I used that hatchet until I was sure he was dead.

I waited until I saw the Fire was hot enough to make a stove pipe red nearly to the elbow I grabbed him and dragged him down there and began cutting him to pieces, putting in each piece as it was dismembered. Then I began to put the garments into the stove. Then I saw that my clothing was cut and bloody while some of his was yet whole and I exchanged them and then took all the bloody clothes and piled them in along with the body. My big coat hid my torn and bloody cloths until I got to Chicago, where I purchased others.

I am tired of trying to hide. though I have succeeded in eluding the detectives so far. If you get this and l am yet alive, come and get me. I shall be not far from Carthage Illinois.

Rev. W. J. Carmichael

( The Letters were published HERE in the Chicago Tribune on January 12th 1909)

This is one of the many stores published in the Lost In Michigan books. I hope you will check it out for other interesting tales in Michigan you can order books HERE

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I am not sure if you notice them, but when I am driving around Michigan, I notice all the water towers. It seems like most towns have one and many of them are newer “bulb” style towers with the name of the town on them. There are others that are a little different, maybe it just a smiley face, or it could be an old historic tower like the one in Ypsilanti. I posted about it HERE

While I was in Brimley in da U.P. eh, I notice this old wooden tower. you don’t see too many of the old wooden ones anymore, I wonder if they still use it? Anyway, I am working on getting a collection of water tower pics to put together a list of remarkable water towers in the Mitten State, I just need to get a few pics of the water towers in the south-west part of the state.

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I was told this old building was part of the Owosso Casket Company, and while I was lost in Owosso, I took a pic of it figuring it was something important without knowing anything about the company history. As I normally do, I did a little research on google, and found out that at one time the Owosso Casket Co. was the largest casket manufacturer in the United States. The company supplied the coffins for two president’s funerals, William McKinley after he was assassinated in Sept. 1901, and former President Benjamin Harrison, who died March 13. 1901. The Company was started in 1882 and closed in the 1940’s and was producing up to 150 caskets per day during its peak.

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I get a lot of books from the library about Michigan history to do research for Lost In Michigan, and in one of the books, (I can’t remember which one) I came across a sentence about native Americans seeing a monster on Gull Island and that was all it said. What I call Gull Island is in the Saginaw Bay near the mouth of the river, but I think it was man-made and not that old, but I googled Gull Island and found out there are a few islands in the Great Lakes that are called Gull Island. The one that I found extremely interesting was the island near Northport in the Leelanau Peninsula. It is called Bellow Island, and has an old abandoned house on it that is now occupied by a flock of Herring Gulls.

The Island was purchased by Edward Taylor Ustick, a prominent businessman in St Louis Mo. and he had the cottage built on the island around 1910, by Brian Woolsey, who built the dairy building that became the Woolsey Memorial Airport HERE. The family used the cottage for several years living with the birds and in 1931 after Edward died his son Lee Ustick, now a Harvard professor, inherited the house and island.

Lee had not visited the island frequently and the last time he was there was in 1945. a few years later in 1948 he got a call from the Michigan state police that the house had been destroyed by vandals. Six juveniles from Northport took axes to the home and destroyed all the plumbing, furniture and walls making the home inhabitable.

In the 1960’s the island was finally sold to retired Great Lakes train-ferry captain from Ludington, Herbert Yost, and his wife, Jane and they were going to build a new cabin on the island. The house was never built because Captain Yost was killed in an automobile crash in 1965.

In 1995, an agreement was reached with the Leelanau Conservancy to acquire the island for permanent protection as a public trust and bird sanctuary and off-limits to any visitors for the protection of the gulls that reside on the island.

Now that I know about the story of Gull Island next time I am up that way I hope I can see it from shore or find a boat to take me near it, I would love to see what is left of the old house and the gulls that live there.

If you want to know more about the island there is an excellent article about it HERE

Lost In Michigan books are ON SALE this week, you can order them from my website HERE they are also available on Amazon HERE

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I saw a post on a website that ranked the states by which states have the worse winters and Michigan was ranked #2 behind Minnesota. You can see the list HERE, Which yes we do have a long cold winter with a lot of lake effect snow coming off the Great Lakes. But then the description on the list goes on about how horrible the winter is, with it’s cold and dreary days with nothing to do.

I was born and raised in this winter wonderland, and I think it is what you make of it. If you embrace the winter months by getting out and enjoy it by snowmobiling, skiing, sledding, ice fishing or any other winter activity, Michigan can be a lot of fun in the winter, and besides I think going thru a tough winter builds character. I am proud to tell people, especially those that live down south, that I am a Michigander, and a little bit of bad weather does not stop me, and not to take the good days for granted.

“There is no such thing as bad weather, only soft people” Bill Bowerman.I hope you subscribe to email updates so you won’t miss any new posts,